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Conjugation of the verb être

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Students and their parents will practice pronouncing the conjugation of the French verb être ("to be") and will understand the two-column format of verb conjugations. They will know the difference between the pronouns and the verb forms (infinitive and conjugated forms) when looking at the conjugated verb.

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Tutorial

Les Verbes

Le verbe être

French verb conjugation

French verbs can be put into two main groups: regular verbs and irregular verbs. Some of the most common verbs, such as the one we are looking at in this lesson, être, are irregular verbs. Other important irregular French verbs are: avoir ("to have"); aller ("to go"'); and faire ("to make or to do"). Regular verbs can be thought of as families of verbs, i.e. the -ER verb family or the -RE verb family.

When conjugating a French verb, you begin with the infinitive form and you write it in the middle. Below the infinitive in the left-hand column, you write out the singular forms, first the pronoun (in blue in our verb table) followed by the conjugated form of the verb (in green in our verb table). To the right, you will see the English translation (but remember that you should only write the French words when conjugating the verb!)

être (this is the INFINITIVE form)

je suis (I am)

tu es (You are -referring to one person)

il est (He is)

elle est (She is)

on est (One is)

Now we add the plural forms of the verb to the right-hand side of the table, the pronouns in blue and the conjugated form of the verb in green. To aid in comprehension, the English translation is in purple to the right of the verb.

être

nous sommes (we are)

vous êtes (you are -referring to a group) ils sont (they are -referring to a group of males only or a mixed group of males

and one or more females)

elles sont (they are -referring to a group of females only)

To be successful, you first need to simply memorize the verb conjugation in its two-column format! Bonne chance!